The Last Minute Costume Change

Last week, my daughter got all gussied up in her fairy costume and we shuttled her off to the firehouse Halloween party that our ladies auxiliary (and in particular one incredibly mom organizer) throws every year. This week – she informed my father-in-law she wants to be a ghost for Halloween.

Yes, the request came just a few days before the big day – after I’d already gotten together the costume she’d requested (Tinkerbell), and found appropriate attire to go underneath said costume to make it upstate New York weather-proof.

Her reason? We’re not quite sure. Because other than a pronouncement “I have a sheet upstairs!” there was none given. So I did what any mother who is currently paying for a new furnace to be put in would do – I put my foot down.

Sorry, babe, but it’s less than week until Halloween, this is it. When that earned me the typical extended lip look, I appealed to her girly side. Ghosts don’t have detachable fairy wings, now do they? We’d have to stash those pretty golden wings somewhere in the attic and you wouldn’t get to show them off.

It worked. Then I bundled her into the car for the nursery school Halloween party, dressed in her fairy outfit. And then her best friend got in the car. “I thought she wanted to be a ghost?”

And there we were again – back on the ghost story. I thought this was just my fickle kid until I read much the same story over at Charm City Moms this week. She’s similarly put her foot down – she’ll buy one costume. If you want to change it, you have to make your own.

Not unreasonable – and with a full dress up trunk, a manageable feat even for my four-year-old. But then there’s this perfectly good costume – which would likely end up in the dress up trunk anyway (or passed down to my friend’s daughter). Not to mention that whole “consequences” lesson, along with the one about making good choices.

But she’s four . . . and did I mention fickle? We’re crossing our fingers that Saturday will be a fairy good day. Have you had the last minute costume change? What’s your rule?

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